The standard of living, whatever physical comforts it includes at a given period of life, must be understood to imply an income which will take the individual of the normal family safely through the ordinary vicissitudes of life without reliance upon charitable assistance, although not indeed necessarily without mutual interchange of many courtesies and favors from friends and neighbors. If the income is earned not by the head of the family alone, but by the wife and one or more children, it should be larger in amount, other things being considered, than if it is due entirely to the earnings of the natural breadwinner, since there should be a deduction from the earnings of the chil dren, even if of wage-earning age, to provide for their future household expenses; and, if the earnings are in part by the wife, there should be a deduction to provide for the assist ance which under such circumstances should be given to the household work.
It is a somewhat venturesome though tempting under taking to express in terms of money income the standard of living to which the average family which remains entirely independent of charitable relief has actually attained. If it is difficult, because of the great diversities in individual families, to describe concretely the actual commodities, comforts, services, and privileges which the standard of living demands, it is equally difficult, although there is, perhaps, less actual diversity, to estimate what income is necessary to secure these particular necessities and com forts in a given city at a given time. Recognizing the tentative character of such an estimate, it may be worth while to record the opinion that in New York City, where rentals and provisions are, perhaps, more expensive than in any other large city, for an average Mmily of five per sons the minimum income on which it is practicable to remain self-supporting, and to maintain any approach to a decent standard of living, is $600 a year. Those who receive less than this sum are almost invariably dependent, in part, upon others for some of the things which have been enumerated as forming a part of the standard of living, or they are deprived of things which are essential according to the opinion of their neighbors and friends. This is not to say that an income of $600 a year is suffi cient to maintain the standard of living of a skilled artisan or even of those who are engaged in many occupa tions which are ordinarily described as unskilled. It is rather an estimate of the absolute minimum below which earnings cannot fall without either constituting a just claim upon the consideration of the charitable, or at least arousing the apprehension of those who look forward to the effect upon the rising generation of a meagre supply of the necessities and decencies of living.
If a considerable number, constituting a natural group, are found to be in receipt of an income of less than this amount, it may be impracticable for charitable assistance to make good the deficit ; and it is even true that an attempt to supplement ordinary wages by charitable relief would have the effect of continuing an inadequate scale of wages or particular occupations for which there is no longer any legitimate need. It is only when individuals or individual families, for personal or accidental or tem porary reasons, fall below the standard, that charitable assistance can effectively intervene. In other words, as has been pointed out in other connections, the relief policy cannot be made to raise the general standard of living, but it should be so shaped as not to depress it. A recogni tion of the standard of living must enter as an element in determining what course to pursue, and especially in deter mining what amount of relief is required to meet indi vidual needs. If it is true that the living conditions, for example, in New York City, require an income of $600 for a family of five persons, then, after making due allow ance for whatever earnings and supplementary income are possible, the relief provided should be not less than the amount required to make up that sum. In other words, those who are aided as a part of a general and systematic scheme of relief should be aided to live at the normal standard of living, and should not be tempted or required to live below it.
It must be borne in mind that the amount suggested, $600 a year, is purely relative, and is subject to change. Between 1900 and 1904 there was a very perceptible in crease in the cost of living, which is, perhaps, fairly repre sented by a very general increase in rentals of from fifty cents to three dollars a month in the east side tenement houses which were subjected to inquiry upon this point. If the average increase was as much as a dollar and a half, this represents an increase in the item of rent in the smaller apartments of 20 per cent, and if our estimate of the stand ard of living were to be made for the end of the period named, it is possible that it should be increased from $600 to $700, since, as has been said, within the same period there was a great increase in nearly all other items of the cost of living as well as in rentals. If, however, the average conditions of the past decade be considered the amount first named is probably not too low.